Tie One On: Smock Apron

The May theme for the Tie One On apron show-and-tell was to make a smock apron to wear out—something I had wanted to do anyway. I bought a Simplicity pattern (#5201) a while back during one of JoAnn's pattern sales, so just needed some suitable fabrics. JoAnn's came through again with this daisy floral print that I found on the sale rack for $2/yard! The black and white polkadot came from my stash.

The fabrics...


The pattern...


I thought this would be easy to make because there were four pattern pieces and just four seams, but I didn't account for the binding. Because it goes around the entire outside edge it ended up being miles long and was kind of tricky to work with. If I make this again I think I'll sew one edge of the binding on first and then flip it to the front instead of the way they said to do it. It's another step but I think it would go more smoothly and involve less pinning (and yes, cursing). Another weird thing happened with the binding. When I cut it on the bias (which you really need to do for the curves) the dots lined up in rows. I think that looks funny.

Front view...


Back view...


I have to say I'm a little disappointed with how it turned out. I like the combination of fabrics and the pockets are cool, but I'm not happy with the fit and will have to adjust the side seams a bit if I'm going to wear it. The reason my hands are in the pockets in the front view photo is because I'm holding down the underarm/side seam bagginess with my arms. If I'm going to do more sewing for myself I really need to get a dress form. If I'd had one I would have realized this was too big early enough to do something about it. Oh well, live and learn as they say.

There are lots of cute aprons this month—check 'em out in the gallery.